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About Polk County itemizer observer. (Dallas, Or) 1992-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 2017)
Polk County Education 14A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • August 30, 2017 Dallas teachers ready for first day SCHOOL NOTES Two students spell their way to the top SALEM — Madelyn Baker, of Dallas, and Ryann Miller, of Monmouth, will represent Polk County this year at the Oregon Statewide Spelling Championship from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Oregon State Fair. The championship will have 63 spellers from 27 counties in Oregon. KOIN 6’s Andrew Dymburt will be the master of ceremonies. Students competing at the championship have won their school, district and county written spelling contests. This is the ninth year Oregon Spellers has sponsored the statewide cham- pionship. Oregon Spellers is an all-volunteer group paid for through donations and sponsored by the Oregon Association for Talent- ed and Gifted. Oregon Spellers was formed after the Oregon Department of Education ended its support for the spelling contest in 2009. Local and regional coordinators are sought to expand the pro- gram to areas not participating. For more information: oregonspellers.org. Dallas awards engineer contract at WW JOLENE GUZMAN/Itemizer-Observer Dallas School District has 17 new teachers starting in the 2017-18 school year. The group includes: Allie McWilliams, districtwide, school psychologist intern; Kelleigh Ratzlaff, Dallas High School, family and consumer studies; Austin Markee, DHS, science; Bethany Givens, Whitworth Elementary School, special education; Lana Mabry, Lyle Elementary School, special education; Sam Arrant, LaCreole Middle School, math/science; Annee Blevins, DHS, media specialist; Keeton Luther, Whitworth, fifth grade; Devin Hammill, DHS, Spanish; Robert Harri- man, Lyle, second grade; Drew Reinhardt, LaCreole, sixth grade math; Jackson Darling, Polk Adolescent Day Treat- ment Center, classroom teacher; Aaron James, Oakdale Heights Elementary School, special education; Regina Bliven, Oakdale, second grade; Kyle Hormann, Whitworth, fourth grade; Ann Ludwig (not pictured), Oakdale, kindergarten; Katt Korpela, Lyle, primary teacher. Field projects at DHS to span two years By Jolene Guzman The Itemizer-Observer DALLAS — The project to update Dallas High School’s football field and track — if field fundraising is success- ful — will be completed over two years instead of one. Once the Dallas Booster Club, which is raising money for the field part of the proj- ect, and Dallas School Dis- trict officials looked at the timing of the upgrades, they decided it would be too dif- ficult to get them both done in one summer. The district agreed to pay for the track replacement, but only if the field is paid for through private dona- tions. “Everyone thought it would be best from a timing perspective to have the arti- ficial field done first before the district started the re- placement of the track,” said Kevin Montague, the dis- trict’s facilities director. “If we wanted to do the track project, let’s say next sum- mer, we would want to go out to bid in February or March to get our contractor on line and geared up.” The problem is, the booster club won’t know if it has the money in hand for the field until April. If it doesn’t, the campaign will have to continue into the next year. Montague said contrac- tors might not like that un- certainty. The proposal now is to have the turf done in one year — next summer at the earliest — and the track the following summer. Athletic Director Tim Lar- son said the district has a contingency plan if the field installation damages the track, making it unusable for one season. “When the field gets put in, it (could) mess up the track. We won’t be able to use the track for practice, won’t be able to use it that season for track meets,” he said. “We will have the abili- ty to use LaCreole’s track for practices, and then the two or three track meets that we would usually host will be picked up by the other schools in our conference.” Larson said he would need to get permission from the Oregon School Athletics Association to have the mid- dle school and high school teams share facilities. Montague said the district should be prepared to adjust entrances to the stadium when the track is replaced. One side of the track will be raised for proper drainage, so those entrances that touch the track need to be changed. “ T h e s t a d i u m w o n’t change, except the interface with the track,” he said. Thinking ahead, however, those changes would have to comply with any new design for a replacement stadium in the future, Montague said. That prevents the district from digging up and new track surface when it up- grades the bleachers. Greg Locke, the engineer on the field project, said completing the projects to- gether would have saved money, but that shouldn’t affect the track project cost. The field drainage will be designed to have the track drainage tie into it once completed. “It doesn’t cost the district more money to postpone the project,” Locke said. “The boosters end up pay- ing that cost, which is what we planned on originally. It’s no additional cost to do it (separately).” DALLAS — The Dallas School Board awarded the engineer- ing contract for next summer’s seismic upgrade for Whitworth Elementary School’s gym. The board approved the $96,700 contract for design and en- gineering to ZCS Engineering, which has already done work on the main part of the building during this summer’s seismic retrofit. Whitworth’s gym project will be paid for with a $700,000 grant from the state that was awarded to the district in April. The main building seismic improvements were also paid for with a state grant. The upgrade will strap the roof to the walls and upgrade the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system. “It’s going to look pretty much like it does now. It’s just tying the roof down,” said Kevin Montague, the district’s facilities di- rector. “In addition to strengthening the roof, it will give us a brand new one.” ACADEMIC HONORS EOU includes locals on honor roll LaGRANDE — Crystal Good and Raylene McGuire, both of In- dependence, and Cody Manzi, of Monmouth, made the honor roll at Eastern Oregon University during the spring 2017 term. To be named to the honor roll, students must maintain a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher while completing 12 hours of graded coursework. George Fox lists graduates, honor roll NEWBERG — Local students were among those who earned dean’s list recognition at George Fox University for the spring 2017 semester. Traditional undergraduate students must earn a 3.5 grade-point average or above on 12 or more hours of grad- ed work to earn a spot on the dean’s list. Following is the list of local students who earned recogni- tion: Dallas — Asheley Crabtree, senior, accounting; Mon- mouth — Caitlin Fettig, junior, social work; and Ben Griner, sen- ior, computer science. The following students earned degrees from George Fox in spring, 2017: Emily Thiessen, of Dallas, bachelor of arts in organizational communication; Kori Chancellor, of Dallas, master of arts in clin- ical mental health counseling; Kendra Sambuceto, of Dallas, master of arts in teaching; Ruth Wilke, of Dallas, bachelor of sci- ence in elementary education; and Sarah Gallup, of Dallas, mas- ter of arts in clinical psychology.